The world's oldest woman has celebrated another birthday, as she turned 117 today. Italian woman Emma Morano is the last known person alive to have been born in the 19th century, and the oldest person on record in the world. She celebrated the landmark day by enjoying a birthday cake wth her carers in her home in Verbania, a town in northern Italy on Lake Maggiore.

Rome (AFP) - An alert and chatty Italian woman, Emma Morano, on Tuesday celebrates her 117th birthday as the last known person alive who was born in the 19th century. Born November 29, 1899, she is the world's oldest living person and the secret to her longevity appears to lie in eschewing usual medical wisdom. "I eat two eggs a day, and that's it. And cookies. But I do not eat much because I have no teeth," she told AFP in an interview last month in her room in Verbania, a town in northern Italy on Lake Maggiore.

A recent study published in the journal Nature Medicine reported that eating cheese — specifically the aged kind containing the compound spermidine, as found in blue cheese — was linked to a longer life in mammals when tested on mice. “The mice do not only live longer when we supplement spermidine to the drinking water, but they are also healthier in terms of cardiac function,” Frank Madeo, co-author of the study and a professor at the University of Graz in Austria, told Medical Daily.

Scientists on Monday revealed part of the secret to why a small village in southern Italy has an unusual number of centenarians - low levels of a particular hormone that affects circulation. Italian and US experts have spent the last six months investigating the extraordinary longevity of residents of Acciaroli, where more than one in 10 - 81 at the mayor's last count - of the village's population of 700 is over 100 years old.

ather Jacques Clemens attends a mass at St. Benoit church in Nalinnes, Belgium, July 10, 2016. NALINNES, Belgium A strict daily routine is the recipe for a long life, according to the world's oldest priest, Belgian Jacques Clemens, who will celebrate his 107th birthday on Monday.Clemens, who has also celebrated his 80th anniversary as a Catholic priest, gets up every morning at 5.30 a.m. and goes to bed at 9.00 p.m. When Clemens was about to retire at 75, his bishop asked him to remain in service until they found a successor - he only stopped holding regular church services...

Adam Lived to Be 900? Maybe, but Our Shorter Life Spans Tell Us More Than We Might Like to Admit Msgr. Charles Pope â€˘ June 9, 2016 â€˘ I sometimes get questions about the remarkably long lives of the patriarchs who lived before the great flood. Consider some of their reported ages when they died: Adam 930Seth 912Enosh 905Jared 962Methuselah 969Noah 600Shem 600Eber 464Abraham 175Moses 120David 70 How should we understand these references? There are many theories that have tried to explain the claimed longevity. Some propose a mathematical corrective, but this leads to other inconsistencies such as certain...

It’d be easy to miss the unobtrusive brown door to Joon Yun’s second floor office, tucked away next to a dry cleaners and a hair salon in downtown Palo Alto, California. But the address itself speaks loud enough. Four-hundred-seventy University Avenue is located in the heart of a neighborhood that holds a special place in the lore of Silicon Valley start-up culture. A few minutes’ walk away are the early homes of PayPal, Facebook, and Google. Yet the early ambitions of these famous companies are modest when compared to the ideas I’ve come to discuss with Yun. I’ve been led...

The spry supercentenarian was born on November 29, 1899, making her the only person whose life has touched three centuries. In a 2015 interview with the New York Times, Morano shared that she attributes her long life to eating three raw eggs a day — she has since gone down to two eggs a day — since she was in her teens (a doctor recommended it for anemia...)

SEATTLE — Ever since last summer, when Lynn Gemmell’s dog was inducted into the trial of a drug that has been shown to significantly lengthen the lives of laboratory mice, she has been the object of intense scrutiny among dog park regulars. To those who insist that Bela, 8, has turned back into a puppy — “Look how fast she’s getting that ball!” — Ms. Gemmell has tried to turn a deaf ear. Bela, a Border collie-Australian shepherd mix, may have been given a placebo, for one thing. The drug, rapamycin, which improved the heart health and appeared to delay...

Ray Kurzweil, Google's chief futurist, laid out what he thinks the next few decades will look like in an interview with Playboy. Kurzweil is one of the biggest believers in The Singularity, the moment when humans — with the aid of technology —will supposedly live forever. He's chosen the year 2045 because, according to his calculations, "The nonbiological intelligence created in that year will reach a level that’s a billion times more powerful than all human intelligence today." But even before 2045, Kurzweil thinks we could begin the deathless process. "I believe we will reach a point around 2029 when...

Living closer to nature is better for your health, new research suggests — and may even extend your life. A study just published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives found that people who live in “greener” areas, with more vegetation around, have a lower risk of mortality. The health benefits are likely thanks to factors such as improved mental health, social engagement and physical activity that come with living near green spaces. The research relied on data from a vast long-term Harvard study funded by the National Institutes of Health called the Nurses’ Health Study, which has collected health information...

Diet rich in rosemary linked to good health and long life expectancy in Italian village Medical experts will examine pensioners living in Acciaroli near Salerno. They have remarkable record for living for longer but also free of disease. Population of a few thousand has about 300 people who are aged over 100 Mediterranean diet, fresh air and walking thought to influence long lives...

Teachers and students at one New Jersey school said they hit the jackpot with one of their teachers whoâ€™s been with the school for more than 20 years. â€śI think you have to take care of yourself and be happy,â€ť said Zhelesnik. â€śI had a good life, a good life.â€ť Zhelesnik, who has no plans to retire any time soon, said another part of her secret to longevity is good food.

The secret to making it to 105 years old is apparently a daily dose of alcohol. Making it five more years, however, means you may have to cut back. Those are the lessons coming from Agnes Fenton, who turned 110 on Saturday, when she officially became a supercentarian. Fenton told ABC in an interview for her 105th birthday that she enjoyed three Miller High Life’s and a shot of Johnnie Walker Blue Label scotch every day for nearly 70 years.

Women in Okinawa have more babies and live longer than women from almost anywhere else in Japan. If data from the statistics bureau and labor ministry are any guide, it has as much to do with work-life balance as the prefecture’s sun-drenched beaches and crystal-clear waters. According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare statistics on average number of children per woman, of which the most recent data is from 2013, women in Okinawa give birth to an average 1.94 children over their lifetime, the highest rate in Japan. Tokyo comes in last, with women in the capital on...

A five day diet which mimics fasting could slow down ageing, add years to life, boost the immune system and cut the risk of heart disease and cancer, scientists believe. The plan which restricts calories to between one third and a half of normal intake has been developed by academics at the University of Southern California. But now they have found that a calorie-restricted diet comprising of vegetable soups and chamomile tea has the same affect. And dieters only need to follow the Fasting Mimicking Diet (FMD) for five days a month, eating what they like for the rest of...

A research team from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), Mayo Clinic and other institutions has identified a new class of drugs that in animal models dramatically slows the aging process—alleviating symptoms of frailty, improving cardiac function and extending a healthy lifespan. The new research was published March 9 online ahead of print by the journal Aging Cell. The scientists coined the term "senolytics" for the new class of drugs. "We view this study as a big, first step toward developing treatments that can be given safely to patients to extend healthspan or to treat age-related diseases and disorders," said TSRI...

Bill Maris, head of Google's investment arm, says humans will live to be 500-years-old in the future, while today's cancer treatments will soon seem "primitive" as scientists continue to hunt for cure. Humans will live to be 500-years-old, according to a top Google executive, who said the company was investing millions of dollars in life sciences to ensure this vision became a reality. Bill Maris, a venture capitalist and the managing partner of Google Ventures, the internet giant's investment fund, said it had hired scientists as partners in order to identify start-ups that could cure cancer and make chemotherapy "seem...

The world’s oldest known man, Alexander Imich, born in 1903, died last June in New York. The torch will be passed to 111-year-old Sakari Momori, who comes from a country full of elderly people: Japan. The Guinness Book of World Records is investigating. That’s not really surprising. You’ve probably heard a similar story before: The Japanese have the highest life expectancy of any major country. Women on average live to 87 and men to 80 (compared to 81 years for American women and 76 for American men). The Japanese can live 75 of those years disability free and fully healthy,...

A new procedure can quickly and efficiently increase the length of human telomeres, the protective caps on the ends of chromosomes that are linked to aging and disease, according to scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Treated cells behave as if they are much younger than untreated cells, multiplying with abandon in the laboratory dish rather than stagnating or dying. The procedure, which involves the use of a modified type of RNA, will improve the ability of researchers to generate large numbers of cells for study or drug development, the scientists say. Skin cells with telomeres lengthened by...

Researchers could be closing in on a "fountain of youth" drug that can delay the effects of aging and improve the health of older adults, a new study suggests. Seniors received a significant boost to their immune systems when given a drug that targets a genetic signaling pathway linked to aging and immune function, researchers with the drug maker Novartis report. The experimental medication, a version of the drug rapamycin, improved the seniors' immune response to a flu vaccine by 20 percent, researchers said in the current issue of Science Translational Medicine. The study is a "watershed" moment for research...

Full Title: Could ibuprofen be an anti-aging medicine? Popular over-the counter drug extends lifespan in yeast, worms and flies Ibuprofen, a common over-the-counter drug used to relieve pain and fever, could hold the keys to a longer healthier life, according to a study by researchers at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. Publishing in PLoS Genetics on December 18th, scientists showed that regular doses of ibuprofen extended the lifespan of yeast, worms and fruit flies. "There is a lot to be excited about," said Brian Kennedy, PhD, CEO of the Buck Institute, who said treatments, given at doses comparable...

No equipment is needed to sit and stand without any support People can score a maximum of 10 points, with 1 point deducted for putting a hand or leg for stability, and half a point docked for wobbling Patients who scored fewer than eight points, were twice as likely to die within the next six years, compared with people with more perfect scores Study claims that musculoskeletal fitness, as assessed by the simple test, can be used to predict death in 51–80-year-olds

Drink a 20-ounce soda daily, and you may be causing your cells to age as much as they would if you smoked, a study suggests. Researchers investigated DNA from 5,309 adults, focusing on telomeres, the caps on the ends of our cells' chromosomes, Time reports.

If you don't eat chili peppers or hot curry much you may want to reassess that given new research that claims the peppers and curry can play a role in reducing the risk of colorectal and bowel tumors, as well as extend a person's lifespan by 30 percent. The study claims the active ingredient in chili peppers, called dietary capsaicin, decreases the cancer risk as it triggers chronic activation of an ion channel called TRPV1, which is a sensory neuron that protects the intestine against acidity and spicy chemicals. In essence adding chili peppers and hot curries to the diet...

A south Arkansas woman celebrated her 116th birthday Friday with cake, a party and a new title — she's now officially the oldest confirmed living American and second-oldest person in the world, the Gerontology Research Group said. Gertrude Weaver spent her birthday at home at Silver Oaks Health and Rehabilitation in Camden, about 100 miles southwest of Little Rock. This year's festivities included the new award from the Gerontology Research Group, which analyzed U.S. Census records to determine that Weaver is the oldest living American, rather than 115-year-old Jeralean Talley, who was born in 1899. The research group, which consults...

Chadd Bunker says his friends and relatives tell him he drives like an old man. Roll through a stop sign? He would never do that. Exceed the speed limit? Not on your life. He makes three right turns to avoid a left. He can be annoying. But Mr. Bunker, who is only 48 years old, is no ordinary driver. He recently became one of the proud, lucky few to reach the delivery driver equivalent of Eagle Scout—the United Parcel Service Inc. UPS +0.12% 's Circle of Honor. The award goes to those who manage to drive their big brown trucks...

Pensioners will be given estimates of how long they have left to live to help them manage their savings, a minister has disclosed. Steve Webb said that the Government wants to provide pensioners with a rough life expectancy when they reach retirement to allow them to make better financial decisions. Experts will take into account factors including gender, where a pensioner lives or whether they smoke, the pensions minister said. Life expectancy should be part of “guidance” given to help people decide how much to save. In last month’s Budget, George Osborne announced the scrapping of rules that force most...

If you're 60 and older, every additional hour a day you spend sitting is linked to doubling the risk of being disabled -- regardless of how much moderate exercise you get, reports a new Northwestern Medicine® study. The study is the first to show sedentary behavior is its own risk factor for disability, separate from lack of moderate vigorous physical activity. In fact, sedentary behavior is almost as strong a risk factor for disability as lack of moderate exercise. If there are two 65-year-old women, one sedentary for 12 hours a day and another sedentary for 13 hours a day,...

COLLEGE PARK, Md. (CBSDC) – Accelerated aging and a greater likelihood of suffering from an age-related illness at a younger age are two consequences being linked to African-American men who have experienced high-levels of racism throughout their lives. A study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine finds that African-American men who reported high levels of racial discrimination, or who have internalized anti-black attitudes, have an increased risk of premature death and chronic disease than white people. Previous research has documented African-Americans’ shorter life expectancy and greater risk of chronic diseases, but this new study is the first to...

To date, we know of only two things that can reverse the effects of aging: caloric restriction and extensive exercise. But in a recent experiment, researchers applied a new compound to 2-year old mice, causing their muscles to regenerate to 6-month old levels. Incredibly, human trials may start next year. The new compound, nicotinamide mono nucleotide (NMN), worked surprisingly quickly when tested on mice. When administered early enough in the aging process, it was found to work within one week; the muscles of older 2-year old mice were "indistinguishable" from the younger 6-month old animals. It improved muscle wastage, restored...

There is nothing quite as difficult to predict as the future. In my lifetime I have already lived through an “inevitable” ice age that never materialized and “inevitable” mass starvation (through overpopulation) that also never happened. When I was in Central America I remember reading a book called Inevitable Revolutions by the historian Walter LaFeber, but more than a quarter of a century later the inevitable still had not taken place. By now, according to predictions, most of us should have been dead from AIDS, that is if variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease or Ebola virus had not got us first. The...

Research published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research found those who did not consume any alcohol appeared to have a higher mortality rate, regardless of whether they were former heavy drinkers or not, than those who drank heavily. Instead, “moderate” drinking, defined as one to three drinks per day, was associated with the lowest mortality rate. …

HASTINGS-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. — THIS fall Google announced that it would venture into territory far removed from Internet search. Through a new company, Calico, it will be “tackling” the “challenge” of aging. (snip) Even if anti-aging research could give us radically longer lives someday, though, should we even be seeking them? Regardless of what science makes possible, or what individual people want, aging is a public issue with social consequences, and these must be thought through. (snip) We may properly hope that scientific advances help ensure, with ever greater reliability, that young people manage to become old people. We are not,...

Life expectancy in the U.S. has risen in the past few decades. While in 1970 life expectancy at birth was 70.9 years, it rose to 78.7 year by 2011. However, most of the developed world is improving faster than this country. And despite the fact that the U.S. spends vastly more per capita on health care than any other country, Americansâ€™ life expectancy is only 26th highest. Earlier this month, the Organizations for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released a report highlighting the latest life expectancy figures for its 34 member nations as well as several other developed nations. According...

Yesterday I heard a quack health foods doc on the radio repeat something we hear a great deal, only he claimed to have a source for it, namely that the U.S. is down the list in life expectancy among developed nations. Supposedly this was a study from the Journal of the American Medical Association. I have some ideas as to why this may be (if indeed true) but I'd like some Freepers involved in medicine/insurance or other health-related fields to weigh in. What would account for the US having shorter life spans than, say, places such as Denmark or France?

Google has launched a healthcare company to attack some of the most difficult scientific problems in diseases related to ageing, marking the biggest step yet beyond its core internet business. Larry Page, chief executive, unveiled the venture, called Calico, with a characteristically ambitious and vague claim that “with some longer term, moonshot thinking around healthcare and biotechnology, I believe we can improve millions of lives”. While outlining a highly ambitious overall goal for the new company, however, Google did not disclose any information about how much it would invest in the venture, which areas of healthcare science the spin-off company...

The world’s oldest man, a 112-year-old self-taught musician, coal miner and gin rummy aficionado from western New York, has died. He was 112. Salustiano Sanchez-Blazquez died Friday at a nursing home in Grand Island, according to Robert Young, senior gerontology consultant with Guinness World Records. Sanchez-Blazquez became the world’s oldest man when Jiroemon Kimura died June 12 at age 116. …

An international team of researchers reporting in the journal Current Biology has found evidence that ageing works through a special set of genes that everyone has – the rDNA genes.Studies in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, shown here, over the past two decades have found a connection between rDNA genes and lifespan. “This work is exciting because it shows that rDNA instability is a new factor in ageing,” said study co-author Dr Austen Ganley from Massey University, New Zealand. Dr Ganley and his colleagues from Japan found that by improving the stability of the rDNA genes they could extend the lifespan...

Chemical 'fingerprint' in the blood could provide clues to health later in life Metabolites indicate future lung function, bone density, and blood pressure Could pave the way for new treatments for age related conditionsA revolutionary new blood test could tell you how long you will live, and how quickly you will age. Scientists have discovered a chemical ‘fingerprint’ in the blood that may provide clues to an infant's health and rate of ageing near the end of life. The discovery raises the prospect of a simple test at birth that could help doctors stave off the ravages of disease in...

Japan's Jiroemon Kimura, who was born in 1897, died in hospital early Wednesday morning, Kyodo News cited the local government as saying. Mr Kimura, from Kyotango in Kyoto Prefecture, was recognised by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest living person in December 2012 when a woman from the United States died at the age of 115.

Sheikh Awad left behind 24 sons and daughters from various wivesSaudi Arabia’s oldest man died at the age of 120 years, leaving behind 447 children, grand children and great grand children, including his 98-year-old eldest son. Sheikh Awad bin Abdul Aziz bin Saifi Al Qarni died of old age at his house in the central village of Al Badadha although he was in a good health just before his demise. The chief of his tribe for most of his life, Sheikh Awad left behind 24 sons and daughters from various wives, including his eldest son, 98, youngest 22-year-old son and...

This article was posted on 04/01/2013 Russian billionaire’s plan for immortality by 2045 includes turning us into cyborgs Technology may be advancing, but it doesn’t change the fact that the human body is limited. Eventually, human beings die. Maybe immortality sounds like science fiction, especially when thinking about cyborgs, avatars, and robots, but for one Russian man, living forever in a machine’s body is the future, and it’s not so far away. After Dmitry Itskov made a fortune as founder of a web publishing company, New Media Stars, he began thinking about the meaning of life and consciousness. Last February, Itskov gathered...

If you love sausages, hot dogs, and brats, you might be in for a shorter life, a new study suggests. The study analyzed data from half a million men and women, as a part of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. It was published in the journal BMC Medicine [PDF]. They found a link between "processed" meat — which includes all meat products, including ham, bacon, sausages; small part of minced meat that has been bought as a ready-to-eat product — and cardiovascular disease and cancer, they report. Also, they found that the more processed meat you eat...

Older people who look on the darker side of life tend to live longer than optimists, who in turn face an increased risk of illness and mortality, a new study by a German research institute found on Thursday. Researchers in Germany and Switzerland found that older people who believe their life satisfaction will be above average in future face a 10-percent higher mortality risk or are more likely to develop physical health problems, the DIW think-tank said. “It is possible that a pessimistic outlook leads elderly people to look after themselves and their health better and take greater precautions against...

Older and fitter? New findings from a UC Berkeley-led study could have implications for the development of treatments for age-related degenerative diseases. A new study led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, represents a major advance in the understanding of the molecular mechanisms behind aging while providing new hope for the development of targeted treatments for age-related degenerative diseases. Researchers were able to turn back the molecular clock by infusing the blood stem cells of old mice with a longevity gene and rejuvenating the aged stem cellsÂ’ regenerative potential. The findings were published online on January 31, 2013),...

As a futurist, you are famous for making predictions of when technological innovations will actually occur. Are you willing to predict the year you will die? My plan is to stick around. We’ll get to a point about 15 years from now where we’re adding more than a year every year to your life expectancy. To clarify, you’re predicting your immortality. The problem is I can’t get on the phone with you in the future and say, “Well, I’ve done it, I have lived forever,” because it’s never forever. You have described microscopic nanobots of the future that will be...

Why do humans tend to live such a long time? Our closest relatives, the chimpanzees, can last into their mid forties in the wild. Yet somewhere in the last six million years, human lifespans have lengthened dramatically, so that living into our seventies is no big surprise. The last few weeks have seen some exciting new developments in this area. First, a recent paper featured in The Conversation showed that at all ages, humans are less likely to die than chimps. Excitingly, however, modern health care, diets and the steady decline in violent deaths have slashed mortality rates of young...

Scientists have found a sure-fire way for men to live longer - but most red-blooded males will find the method unpalatably painful. Researchers in Korea have shown that eunuchs outlived other men by a significant margin. They say their findings suggest that male sex hormones are responsible for shortening the lives of men. A Turkish chief eunuch from the 18th Century. Researchers now believe that eunuchs may live longer The evidence comes after careful study of genealogy records of noble members of the Imperial court of the Korean Chosun dynasty (AD 1392-1910). Kyung-Jin Min, of Inha University, said: 'This discovery...

Castration had a huge effect on the lifespans of Korean men, according to an analysis of hundreds of years of eunuch "family" records. They lived up to 19 years longer than uncastrated men from the same social class and even outlived members of the royal family. The researchers believe the findings show male hormones shorten life expectancy. The study is published in the journal Current Biology. Castration before puberty prevents the shift from boy to man. One of the scientists involved in the study, Dr Cheol-Koo Lee from Korea University, said: "The records said that eunuchs had some women-like appearances...